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Road Trip to South Dakota Badlands National Park

For the Memorial day weekend, we hit the road and headed up to South Dakota for 4 days of sightseeing. Of particular interest was Badlands National Park, which is an 8 hour drive from our house in Colorado. We stayed within the park at the Cedar Pass Lodge, and were continually amazed at the landscape that surrounded us. The Badlands is such a striking contrast from the rest of the area...one minute you're on completely flat land, and out of nowhere comes jagged mountains, sharp spires, and deep canyons. It's truly a complete 180 from the rest of the surrounding area. We really enjoyed our time (even though the weather felt more like Vancouver than the high desert - it rained every day we were there) and definitely think we'll be back to explore again. While we were in the area, we found time to visit the very famous Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore National Monument, and Cascade Falls. On our next trip, we'll likely try to camp somewhere in the backcountry of the Badlands, and also hopefully squeeze in a sidetrip to Devils Tower National Monument in Eastern Wyoming.